Work’s on to win back tourists

ALMOST 80,000 tourists were lost to the Townsville region last year, compared with a rise in visitors across the state.

More than 2.1 million people visited the region in 2013/ 14, down 77,000 on the previous year, mainly due to a fall in international visitors.

Townsville Enterprise Tourism and Events executive manager Bridget Woods ( pictured) said the organisation was working on a strategy to better market the city.

“We have a goal to double visitor expenditure to $ 1.4 billion by 2020 and it’s pleasing to see that despite the overall drop in visitor numbers, expenditure in the region has in- creased by 3.7 per cent,” she said.

“We are working on a strategy to d e v e l o p t o u r i s m p r o d u c t s that are attractive to international markets, however this needs to be led by industry and the role of Townsville Enterprise is to support that development.

“We are working on a longterm strategy for attracting international tourists and this involves conversation around direct access and targeted marketing with a focus on our natural assets and educational tourism experiences.”

Economist Colin Dwyer said it was concerning the region had experienced a drop as the Australian dollar was decreasing in value.

“One set of numbers doesn’t make a reason to start changing our policy, but it’s a wake- up call,” he said.

“When you have a depreciated currency … you would expect to see more international visitors coming into Cairns, Brisbane and Gold Coast, and you would expect with the secondary marketing we should be picking up some of those visitors.”

The Whitsundays recorded a jump in domestic and international visitor numbers, with domestic expenditure up $ 10 million.